Lewis Hamilton has again alluded to 2007, the year in which he debuted in Formula 1 at the hands of McLaren and with Fernando Alonso as a teammate. The rivalry between the two led to an internal battle within the team that has not been seen in any other to date. This rivalry also moved to the stands. The Alonsomanía in Spain gave rise to the Alonso mania in Great Britain where both the public and the media took a position on the side of the local pilot. So much tension led to an embarrassing episode in Barcelona , where Hamilton experienced racism for the first time in his career.
The Briton thus recalled his Formula 1 debut in an interview for the Wall Street Journal . “ Drivers have to be square to get to Formula 1 . You must work hard, go to bed at ten o’clock or whatever. No pilots worked in fashion, no pilots did anything else, so I remember being there and thinking “I’m different.” I like to do all these other things, ”began Lewis Hamilton . “At first I thought I had to adjust to how people wanted me to be and I was not comfortable,” acknowledged the seven-time champion.
On what happened in Barcelona, Hamilton has stated: ” I remember the first year when I came to the sport and I experienced racism from this public and nobody said anything .” “I was not happy. I had achieved my dream (to debut in Formula 1), but it wasn’t me, it couldn’t be me and I didn’t have the confidence in myself at the time , so I just kept quiet. We repress so many things that we do not realize the pain we are experiencing ”, he added.
Hamilton’s fight against racism
For Lewis Hamilton , the death of George Floyd marked a turning point in his career that makes him a more committed driver today. “In my 14th or 15th year I was going through the team celebration photos and realized that the teams are still completely white , there are very few people of color and I wondered how this could be happening after I’ve been here so long. weather. Then everything that happened after George’s death hit me hard . I could not believe that so many people were still silent about what had happened, “he admitted.
“So now I’m willing to risk either my job, my reputation , I don’t care. I want the black community to know that I listen to them and that I am with them, ”concluded Hamilton.
A battle similar to the one he had with Fernando Alonso , except that they are fighting it in different teams, is the one that Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen have for the World Cup this season. After an incident between the two, the Mercedes driver was the victim of racism on social networks, something that his team wanted to publicly denounce. “ During and after the British Grand Prix, Lewis Hamilton was the victim of multiple instances of racist abuse on social media after a collision during the race. Formula 1, the FIA and the Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team condemn this behavior in the strongest possible terms. These people have no place in our sport and we urge those responsible to be held accountable for their actions, ”he reported. “Drivers and teams are working to build a more diverse and inclusive sport and these unacceptable cases of abuse must be highlighted and eliminated, ” added the Mercedes team.
Red Bull, for its part, also issued a statement on the matter. “While we are great rivals on the track, we are all united against racism . We are saddened and disgusted by the racist abuse Hamilton endured on social media Sunday following his incident with Verstappen. Although the rivalry is intense on the track in the fight for the world title, the line of racist abuse can never be crossed . We have zero tolerance for racist behavior, ”said the Austrian team.
Hamilton’s late coming out of the closet
Along the same lines as in his last interview, the 36-year-old pilot commented last July: “The entrance to this sport was a square and I was like a hexagon, and then I thought:» I will never go through that damn thing”. So I had to transform myself to fit into that world and then I tried to go back to my previous personality . “
“ It has definitely been a very liberating thing to be able to be open and express my opinion on anything. Let people know that there is much more to me than perhaps they realized when they saw me on television. I feel like I’m cut out for this . There is a reason why I was repressed for all that time. And if it had happened earlier, he wouldn’t have been ready , he wouldn’t have been strong enough to handle it. I couldn’t do my job that well and do both at the same time. But now I am equipped with the tools to do so. I look at my niece and my nephew. I look at my little cousins. And I think, ‘How can I make things better for them and their friends?’ », Added Lewis Hamilton .
“I have not done things perfectly. I was never trained to do well with the media . They threw me into a room with people. And at the same time, it was probably a late blooming person . I have been a child protected by my father for a long time ”, the Briton finished.
